Holy Crap! I'm As Old As The Lego Guy

 

I can't even believe this.  I was wondering the web today, as I tend to do, and I found an article on Wired.com titled The Lego Minifig Turns 30.

 

30?  Seriously?  The little Lego guy just turned 30?  Wow, I could have sworn that he was older than that.  I thought he came out in the '60's or something.  But apparently I was wrong.  The Lego Man first came out on August 25th, 1978.

 

What weirds me out about this story is that I just turned 30 back in March.  So the Lego Guy and I are the same age.  I'm not quite sure how I feel about this bit of knowledge to be honest.  At first it made me feel really old.  The Lego guy has been with me my whole life.  He's always seemed like one of those eternal things, one of those toys that has been around for forever like G.I. Joe or Barbie.  If you had asked me yesterday, I would have sworn to you kids in the 50's had played with the Lego guy.  But I would have been wrong.

 

Having thought about this for a bit, I'm more and more coming to see this as a cool thing.  The Lego guy is like a little brother to me.  He and I went through school together, we're both children of the grunge/alternative age of music.  We both turned 21 at the same time and started drinking together.

 

The wired article has a bunch of fun facts about the Lego guy:

 

• Over four billion minifigs have been manufactured, or nearly four figures are sold every second, for an average of 122 million per year.


• The very first minifig was a police officer, and he has appeared in 41 different versions in 104 sets.


• The first minifigs had yellow skin and fixed, pleasant expressions. It was not until 1989 that this changed, with a pirates set debuting figures with eye patches, hook hands and peg legs.


• 1997 saw the minifig's official entry into the digital realm, starring in the videogame Panic on Lego Island.


• It was not until 1998 that minifigs with realistic skin tones were released, in conjunction with a new line of sports figures.


• As of 2004, all licensed products featured minifigs with natural coloration.

 

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the little yellow Lego guy, lego has launched an official website that is hosting a video contest and is selling some cool t-shirts.  You should go check it out at gominimango.com.